Tuesday, February 19, 2013

California Student Ali Syed Dead Following Shooting Rampage

20-Year-Old Ali Syed

This morning's killing spree by Ali Syed presents an opportunity to clear up some confusion. Is Syed a Muslim? His name would suggest a Muslim background, but for all we know at this point, he could (possibly) turn out to be a Christian or an atheist. Also, even if Syed was a devout Muslim, he could have had mental health problems, even a psychotic break with reality.

How is this relevant to clearing up confusion? Consider this. When a terrorist like Nidal Malik Hasan, a self-proclaimed "Solder of Allah," opens fire on unsuspecting victims while shouting "Allahu Akbar," politicians and the media are quick to remind us that all religions have their radicals, that people of all backgrounds can have mental health problems, and so on.

True. But this response leaves out an important difference between Islam and other ideologies. Muhammad commanded his followers to violently subjugate non-Muslims (Qur'an 9:29), and terrorism is a divinely-ordained response to aggression, criticism, etc., in Islam (Qur'an 5:33, 8:12, etc.). Hence, while it's possible for someone who happens to be a Muslim to have a psychological break and to go on a killing spree that has nothing to do with his religion (which would be a possibility for adherents of any ideology), it's also possible for a Muslim to go on a killing spree specifically because his religion advocates killing for the sake of Allah (a possibility that does not exist for Christians and other non-Muslims). Similarly, a Muslim may become extremely angry at his wife and kill her in a fit of rage, a tragedy that could (and does) happen among non-Muslims as well. But a Muslim may also kill his wife because his religion supports honor killings, a practice which is not supported by other religions.

This brings us back to Ali Syed, who sounds to me (based on very little information) like a young man who simply snapped. If police investigations reveal that Syed was mentally unstable prior to his violent rampage, then he falls into a category of people that spreads across all religions and ideologies. But if Syed turns out to be some kind of Jihadist (which, at the moment, I find unlikely), this wouldn't put him in a category that spreads across all religions and ideologies. Instead, this would put him firmly in the camp of Muslims who are willing to obey their prophet in all matters--even in slaughtering unbelievers (Qur'an 9:111).

CALIFORNIA (NBC News)--A 20-year-old college student went on a shooting rampage across Orange County, Calif., on Tuesday, killing three people and injuring several others before killing himself, authorities said.

Police said the man, identified as Ali Syed, 20, of Ladera Ranch, Calif., told one of his victims, whose car he stole: "I killed somebody. This is my last day."

In all, there were three homicide victims and at least five victims of attempted homicide, police said.

Syed, a student at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo with no criminal record, shot and killed a young woman in his home in Ladera Ranch, which he shared with his parents, said Scott Jordan, police chief of the town of Tustin, where several of the incidents occurred Tuesday.

The relationship between Syed and the young woman remained unclear, as was the reason she was in the home, police said.

Syed's parents were home at the time, about 4:45 a.m. (7:45 a.m. ET), and fled, Jordan said. Syed then took their black sport-utility vehicle and set out on a drive along Orange County's highways, stopping at times to change cars and shoot people — apparently at random, according to police.

16 comments:

David Wood, an excellently nuanced, non-propagandist piece you've written. I don't see that all that often on political (or for that matter, Islam-critical) websites. That might be because you are a Christian, trying to love your opponents, and therefore achieving some balance and fairness in your outlook.

On another subject: The other day I saw a video in which Robert Spencer interviewed Nicolai Sennels, who is a psychologist who worked extensively in a Copenhagen prison in which something like 70% of the convicts were Muslims.

Sennels in the interview pointed to an extensive research study carried out in some other Scandinavian country (or maybe it was Germany) over a number of years with a large number of people. The researchers found that the more religious someone becomes, the more peaceful they become, with one exception: Islam. The more religious a Muslim becomes, the study found, the more prone to be violent and supportive of violence by fellow Muslims.

If this young man is a Muslim I would not be so quick to exonerate Islam from his murderous rampage.

Whether he is a Muslim or not I'm sure his rampage was triggered by his first victim that the news media is reporting as only a young woman. Was this a love interest that rejected him, was this a arranged marriage that went wrong. Was this a marriage where she was unfaithful to him. Is this his sister that he killed to restore honor.

This may not be Jihad but may be related to how Islam teaches young Muslim men to treat woman.

Do you white people understand that when you make an argument blaming a religion for violent actions, that you're opening up the past of Christianity.

What did Christians do during the Dark Ages? What about Inquisition? What about Salem Witchcraft trials? And, how about this little thing called slavery.

How peaceful of Christians, right? See, your arguments are not founded on more than just recency. Your brain can't, strike that, hasn't been able to educate itself beyond the last 50 years of history.

Also, whenever there is a mass shooting, I think, "must be white." I'm not the only one. Black people think that about whites. Latinos think the same. And, to our delight, it's usually the case. So, should I think of you and your white brothers like this forever?

It seems that The Washington Post is the only non-Christian media to report this info.

Muslims attack Coptic Christians, church in Egypt

Muslims in Egypt set fire to a Christian church in Fayoum Province over the weekend, the second such assault against the village’s Coptic Christian population in just more than a month.

Attackers also tore down the church’s cross and threw stones at the Christians, according to a report in Morning Star News.

Four people, including the priest, were injured, the report said.

Between 20 and 30 Muslim villagers attacked the church, according to the report. They started with rocks, and smashed windows and pelted church-goers. But one finally tossed a Molotov cocktail-type bomb into the building. The mob then pushed into the church and destroyed crosses, icons and the building’s support structure, the Morning Star News reported. Ultimately, the dome collapsed.

dfsdfsdf said: "Do you white people understand that when you make an argument blaming a religion for violent actions, that you're opening up the past of Christianity."

Do you (whatever you happen to be) understand that when you respond to an argument without actually reading the argument, you just make a fool out of yourself?

I can tell you didn't bother reading it, because you've interpreted me as arguing (based somehow on my whiteness): "Since Muslims committed violence in the past, we should condemn the religion." And of course, if this were my argument (which you've attributed to me, despite the fact that I've never used this argument, and never heard it used by anyone except people who falsely attribute it to others), then the response about Christianity would certainly be open to you.

But what I actually said (and what anyone with a first grade reading ability could understand I said) is that Islam, unlike other ideologies, calls for violence against unbelievers (simply for being unbelievers). Hence, when a Muslim commits violence against an unbeliever, it's possible that he's simply obeying his religion (though there are other possibilities as well).

It's strange how anyone could miss such a clear point. But I guess when people let their emotions do the work of their intellect, anything is possible.

@dfsdfsdf You should get your facts right. The dark ages is not christianity. It was the romans. In the first three centuries there was no christian army yet it was spreading so fast that Constantine got scared that his pagan altars would be destroyed. So he decided to pretend to convert to christianity and he used it as an excuse to conquer other nations. And slavery is not evil. Read this article.

Do you white people understand that when you make an argument blaming a religion for violent actions, that you're opening up the past of Christianity.

Do you understand that you sound like a racist?

What did Christians do during the Dark Ages? What about Inquisition? What about Salem Witchcraft trials? And, how about this little thing called slavery.

Do you understand that those things happened in the past and Christianity has moved on well past those things? Oh, and that slavery was a common practice amongst Muslims, and is still practiced to a small degree?

Hardcore Islam, on the other hand, has embraced violence more and more.

People who commit suicide are usually depressed. People who are full of enough rage to commit mass murder followed by suicide are usually on psychiatric drugs known to cause people to commit violent and suicidal acts.This was the case in Sandy Hook, Columbine, Aurora Colorado, Red Lake High School and just about every other similar school, mall, theater or workplace murder/suicide in America. Yes, they use guns as a tool of destruction just like a drunk driver uses a car to kill and injure people. At least in the case of drunk drivers we aren't blaming cars. We can see that it is alcohol that has impaired the person. Yet when it comes to mentally ill people committing mass murder/suicide we want to blame only guns. I am in favor of stricter gun control but let's start targeting what it is that puts a person in a state of mind to actually go out and commit mass murder/suicide. This guy Ali Syed was quoted as saying, "Today is my last day." He was already determined to end his own life but decided to take as many others with him as he could. The thing I have seen that most often puts a person in that raging state of mind is being on antidepressants, antipsychotics or similar acting psychiatric drugs. Since this was not a big killing, maybe the press won't investigate long or hard enough to get into reporting if this guy was being treated for mental illness. I guess he could have had a religious motive but so far this looks a lot like a mentally ill person who went on a rampage in reaction to the psychiatric drugs he was on.

@dfsdfsdfYou state, “What did Christians do during the Dark Ages? What about Inquisition? What about Salem Witchcraft trials? And, how about this little thing called slavery.”

I assume you are a moslem and probably trying to make the point that Christian’s past is bad because the religion dictated it. I say this because you state, “when you make an argument blaming a religion for violent actions, that you're opening up the past of Christianity”. Now, can you provide any proof that Christian’s violent action in the past has anything to do with Christianity?

No Christian will say that Christians don’t do bad things. We even admit, and the bible supports it, that even some of the prophets did horrible things. We have done bad things in the past and are still doing it, some on a small scale and some on a bigger scale. But nowhere in the bible are we commanded to do any of the horrible things which you might have in mind. For a Christian, the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. We are also told to love our neighbor as ourselves. On the other hand, violence, murder, adultery, beating your wife, marrying pubescent girls, not loving your neighbor, lying, all of this is allowed in Islam. So when moslems do these things, the religion of Islam dictates it. I believe you know all this but if you would like, I can provide you evidence from the Quran and hadith which allows all of such horrible things.

It is true that Christianity has some dark chapters in past centuries. I find it fascinating that so many American blacks have converted to Islam as sort of a rejection of Christianity because Africans were introduced to the religion through slavery. Yet black Africans were also introduced to Islam through slavery-a slavery that continued while Europeans and Americans were abolishing it in the 19th century.

As to the incident (which happened in my local area of OC). What remains to be seen is the why the female was killed. What was the exact motive? That will determine if religion was a factor or not. I would also like to know who the motorist was who was spared while two others were killed. I think David is trying to be fair and withhold judgement until more facts come out. I, for one, will be checking the foreign news accounts. The Daily Mail (UK) seems to be putting out more than the US outlets. If this story quickly disappears from the news, that will be an indication.

Something tells me Granny Dee is a Muslim pretending to be a granny. I could be wrong, but I doubt it. What motivation would someone have to make such a ridiculous assertion? I can only think of Muslims.

The Crusades... Which ONLY 200 thousand + died . (Liberals) and many other people to know there were 9 Crusades. They got started due to Christians being killed on the way to the Holy Lands. Not to Forget the fact that the Muslim Seljuk Turks expansion into Anatolia, which Muslims were going around invading and conquering countries around the Middle East. Palestine was invaded by Muslim Arab armies during this period, capped by the capture of Jerusalem in 638 AD. The First Crusade (1096–1099) was a military expedition by Western Christianity to regain the Holy Lands taken in the Muslim conquest of the Levant, ultimately resulting in the recapture of Jerusalem.

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